Liar, Liar

Katherine Harris has stirred things up again with her recent comments that the separation of church and state is "a lie" and that electing non-Christians to office is to "legislate sin."

While there is some legitimate debate around the history of the doctrine of church-state separation, it's not like the concept was foreign to the Founders. Thomas Jefferson wrote about it in his famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. And the idea goes back further in the writings and ideals of Baptist Roger Williams, as well. And in any case, the concept of separation between the government and the religious is well-established and is not a seriously questioned constitutional principle.

I find Rep. Harris' comment that electing non-Christians to office would be akin to legislating sin to be peculiar. I'm not sure if she assumes that Christians in office are immune from legislating sin, or if she believe that non-Christians are just incapable of doing good. In either case, who defines what a "sin" is? If we were in Iran, Rep. Harris would be sinning by speaking out in the first place.

Perhaps her ideas of legislating sin are informed by her other strange comment - that the nation's Founders did not intend for America to be "a nation of secular laws." What, pray tell, makes a law "secular?" For that matter, what makes a law "sacred?" Can a law ever be both? A good case can be made that murder would be illegal even in a society devoid of religious influence. The idea that my rights stop where another person's nose begins is very appealing to even the atheists of this country. Self-preservation is a universal trait of all living beings.

Rep. Harris' comments are problematic on several levels, but perhaps the most troubling aspect is that she is starting with a strange view that artificially separates the secular from the sacred in exactly the way that the Founders did not want them to be separated. She does this only to turn around and fuse them where the Founding Fathers sought to separate them! While the faith of people should guide their decisions and behavior in elections and in government, faith should never become the concern of the government. Government should govern for the good of all its citizens, regardless of race, creed, color, gender, or age, and the church, mosque, synagogue should be above the politics of the day so that each may continue to be a prophetic witness to society.